Manager Sean Dyche has been giving his thoughts following the cancellation of the friendly against Hannover 96 at Turf Moor at half time today.
Following crowd trouble in the visiting fans section at the ground, with seats being thrown and grown men acting like…well enter your own word of choice…on police advice the game was postponed during a lengthy half time break with Burnley one nil up following a first half goal by Ben Mee.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the game, Dyche knew it was the right decision as ultimately it has to come down to safety.
‘We went on police advice. We are still kind of piecing together the details but the police decided to make a decision and we fully support that, from myself and the team and the club. The referee came to see me and said he wanted us in the room just to get a feel for our general thoughts.’
Dyche went on to say.
‘I made it clear. It comes down to safety. The police decided to call it off and we support that. We understand that. It`s important what the team do, but it`s not as important as people coming to a football match. You want safety. You don`t want people to get hurt. It`s a shame what has happened but it`s done, as simple as that.’
There was of course disappointment that we didn’t get the full value of the run out with it being abandoned, but having had a productive pre season period so far Dyche wasn’t overly concerned with that as there are tweaks that can be made in our final week of preparations ahead of the Premier League campaign to ensure all players are where they should be.
‘These players can easily handle a half of football and most of them can easily handle most of a 90-minute game. But there`s a few just a bit short. We were hoping for them to get the full game in, but c`est la vie. There`s nothing we can do. We have already started the wheels in motion with the staff and will possibly have a look at getting another game in, even if it`s just for 60 minutes for players to make sure they`re topped up. We will have to decide that. In the bigger picture I think the lads are fit and well. I think they`ve shown some good signs in pre-season and I think there`s still more to come.’
Burnley:
Heaton, Lowton, Mee, Tarkowski, Ward, Cork, Westwood, Brady, Arfield, Gray, Walters.
Substitutes:
Pope, Mitchell, Bardsley, Anderson, Long, Taylor, Ulvestad, Gudmundsson, Defour, Hendrick, Vokes, Agyei.
Hannover 96:
Esser, Albornoz, Waldemar, Fullkrug, Harnik, Klaus, Korb, Prib. Sane, Schwegler, Felipe.
Substitutes:
Tschauner, Bahre, Bakalorz, Benschop, Fossum, Hubner, Karaman, Maier, Ostrzolek, Schmeidebach, Sorg.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
